2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee - yes it’s got a hemi

So last week I pulled the trigger on an 07 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited. It's got 128k miles on it, with Quadra-Drive II and a 5.7L Hemi. 

This will be less build and more personalizing it to make it work for my hobbies and be a better daily driver. There will ADP be some maintenance and repairs thrown in, hopefully more maintenance than repair. 

The first thing I need to do is come to term with the idea that I just bought an used vehicle and it's going to have some "unique" aspects, like dash buttons that no longer light up at night. 

Here's some photos:

Looks like a nice start!  Very clean.

First order of business is to get handfree and Bluetooth streaming capabilities. Most of the states I travel in have handfree laws, and it seems like all the stations I use for presets have commercials on at the same time. 

It came with the Boston acoustics audio system with 6 disc change (in dash) and amp, so I didn't want to make changes that would require major modifications. In order to add a double din with CarPlay I would have had to modify the dash and a few images in line showed that even with the install kits it didn't look finished. 
 

A little searching found this:

It is plug & play, maintains the steering wheel controls and the only visible part is the microphone.

Installation was straightforward and even though it take a minute or two for it to boot up, it works well:

Next project will be oil change and check the rest of the fluids. I will wait until warmer weather to do any fluid changes on the diffs, transfer case, or trans. 
 

If the plastic part of the key is broken/damaged, replacements are pretty cheap on Amazon and we had no issues with them on the wife's Grand.

In reply to untchabl :

Thanks for the info, that will come in useful when I lose or break one of the keys 

Added this to the glove box since my trailers are flat 4 connectors. I checked  and was happy to see all LEDs work so I should be all set for my trailers once I flip over the ball mount from the Sedona. 
 

Its been a while since I posted about the Jeep. In the last 10 months it's now over 145k miles and I've done the following:

- new water pump, belt, idler, and tensioner

- replaced PCM (seems to have fixed power issue and engine cutting out)

- new spark plugs and boots

- replaced PCV valve

- changed all fluids and filters

- Falken Wildpeak AT tires and alignment

- replace speakers (infinity reference series)

Now I'm chasing an oil leak, which unfortunately is not easy to locate. 
 

Here's what I've be able to determine:

-in less than 2k miles it's used/leaked 2 quarts.

- Leak only happens when RPMs are above idle, seems to be 2k or higher.

- seems to occur only when nose down or stopping

- fresh oil can be seen along the oil pan and bell housing below the starter, but not above the starter.

- The oil is only on the drivers side bolts on the bottom of the bell housing. So I think I can rule out a rear main leak. 

- It appears that there are dark areas on the top of the bell housing.

-I thought I saw some oil along the bottom of the exhaust manifold and drop's hanging off the rear corner of the drivers side head.

- I replaced the valve cover gasket on the drivers side (ran out of time for passenger side last night). The old gasket was solid, and broke alert when I was removing it from the groove in the cover.

-I sprayed down the oil on the bell housing and oil pan with brake clean and wiped away what I could.

 Today I didn't get the oil smell on the way to work, which was mostly highway. On the way home I took secondary roads and the oil smell was back at time.

My next step is to get some dye and a black light. I'm stumped at this point, and wondering if there is a crack in the oil pan hiding in the bell housing, or maybe MDS solenoids leaking. 

TL:DR Any recommendations on dye and lights?

Now the photos:

More photos, this is the top of the bell housing taken using a flexible borescope

Unless you are seeing puddles underneath, I would imagine it has to be burning it up.  1 quart per 1000 is a rather significant amount, enough that you would see drips I'd think. 
 

a quick google search, the 5.7 seems to be pretty frequent for oil consumption. Are the plugs easy to check?

Pretty colour. Not sure why - but when I clicked the link - my first thought was TRACKHAWK

In reply to lnlogauge :

The plugs I took out in the fall were iridium and worn down, but otherwise a light/medium brown and no deposits on them. I replaced them with the factory spec'd champion copper plugs. 

The oil smell showed up right after the fluids were changed. I thought it was just some leftover from a spill causing the smell, bu then it started to get worse. 

I know the shop struggled with bolts on the transmission pan, but can't see any way they could have caused the engine oil leak with what they did, unless there was an defect in the pan that developed into a crack in the pan behind the bell housing when they were fighting with the trans pan bolts. 

I don't get the oil smell when driving, only when I come to a stop, so I think the oil may be getting blown onto the cat that is right behind where the oil drops are forming and being burned off going down the road.

I had the under tray off when looking for the leak, but I think the tray is under the area with the drips. I need to get under it after getting home one night and see if its dripping and where it's landing. It was raining tonight, so I wasn't going to try today. 

I didn't get a good picture of the oil running down the crossmember, but it was flowing down at a good clip until it stopped because the RPMs had gone back to idle.

Dude, just discovered this thread. My dad owned a Jeep identical to yours about 10 years ago. Only his was gray.

I have an 08 GC with the 5.7 that I bought a couple years ago as a budget tow rig. It was a basket case when we first got it, but it turned out really nice after some work. 
 

a couple things I've learned so far:

-It does consume oil, so keep an eye on the level. I added a catch can, but hardly get anything in it and it doesn't leak, so it must be burning it. 

- The exhaust manifold studs break all the time on the 5.7s. I had some on each side and it was a bit of a pain to get those out. I had just enough room to weld a nut to them and back them out. 

- I'm having a cutting out issue also. It's been extremely few and far between until recently when it happened a few times in a row and finally threw a code for the camshaft position sensor circuit. I'm going to replace the pigtail/sensor/ and inspect the wiring as best as I can. I'm curious if you had similar issues and the ECU was the culprit. 
 

In reply to Spoolpigeon :

Until recently it wasn't leaking and I had no oil smell, so I was fine with adding a quart between changes since it was using some. 

The oil smell and leak is new, so I'm going to keep a close eye on it to figure out how quickly it's losing it. I checked at lunch and it was right at the full mark. It went from about 1/4-1/2 quart over (my son added a quart on 12/30) to where it is now in about 150 miles. I'll check it at lunch over the next few days to see what happens with about 100 miles on it per day. 

As for the pcm issue. It took me a while to chase it down, but watching live data I could see the pcm voltage go to zero when it cut out. After troubleshooting and testing I tried replacing the pcm, and haven't had it cut out since. 
Thread with PCM investigation

Ahh, turns out I commented on that thread too lol. I'll monitor the ECU voltage and see if it may be the same issue that you had. Thanks for the good info!

It's been a while since I've updated this, and have been ignoring the oil leak (other than checking and tipping off).

I recently tried to have a local shop diagnose the oil leak, exhaust leak, and install the sway bar links I've had riding around the be back for 6 months. That reminded me why I typically don't outsource work. They came back with an estimate of $3800 ($2300 for struts and ball joints only) to do front struts and ball joints, replace the trans pan gasket and the oil pan gasket. They said there wasn't an exhaust leak and it was lifter noise I was hearing.  

I confirmed the strut is leaking, I didn't check the ball joints (although it passed state inspection 3k miles ago), and found the heat shield loose and a broken stud on the exhaust manifold (confirming exhaust leak and not lifter). So not impressed with the shops diagnosis skills.   

I just figured since I'm keeping this to hand down to my son in 3 years I may as well refresh the front and and avoid doing it later so I have the following in order:

- Koni for front and rear

- strut mounts and isolators

- boots and bump stops

-upper and lower control arms (ball joint and bushings included)

- oil pan gasket

- trans pan gasket 

- exhaust manifold gaskets and hardware 

So I'm now $1100 poorer, and will be busy on Labor Day weekend working on the jeep to get it ready for winter. I still need to buy fluids, but I'm saving >$2500, so I guess it's worth it and I'll know it was done right. 

I've finally made progress and gone from this: 

to this:

It's been a while since I've made any updates to this thread, but unfortunately that hasn't meant I've been just driving the Jeep. 

Since the last post I've:

- rebuilt the CV joint at the transfer case end of the front driveshaft.

- replaced the TIPM.

- replaced front diff bushings.

- flushed the heater core twice.

- replaced the thermostat. 

- rerouted the PCM wiring.

The driveshaft work and bushing took out some slop in the driveline, but also made it apparent that at 160k miles there is internal slop on the differentials and transfer case that shows up under very light loads. 

The TIPM was to address the engine cut-out that I thought had been solved by the PCM replacement, but had returned during hockey season when driving further to get my son to practice. The TIPM didn't solve the cutting out, but did fix some other issues like the power windows.  The power windows used to stop working randomly and the way to get it to work again was to open the window on the opposite side. 

Googling revealed that Chrysler products still display codes if you cycle the key on/off the right number of times. This revealed a previously unseen code for the TCM losing power when vehicle was moving faster than 20 mph. More googling found that the "solution" was rerouting the PCM portion of the harness higher along the firewall. I figured it was worth a try, so I did that as well as raising the harness where is was resting on the ignition coils. 

So far no stumble or shutdown since rerouting the harness. 

Heat has been lacking this winter but coolant levels and engine temp were good. I flushed the heater core with garden hose, got all the air out of the system and heat seems to improve, but faded away with time. Running at higher rpm's would bring it back, but not to the levels of the previous winter.  

I did notice the coolant level was dropping gradually, but it was hard to tell how quickly with the variable use the jeep currently sees. I had a theory that maybe there was air getting trapped in the heater core from a seeping head gasket, hence the coolant level dropping and poor heat. I also noticed the cooling system built pressure quickly.

My attempts to use a combustion gas tester showed no combustion gasses in the coolant, but there were some weird bubbling and boiling over captured in this thread (Blue). 

Since the coolant level was already low from the boiling over yesterday, I went to the dealer this morning and bought a new thermostat ($126 😡). I replace the Gates thermostat I had installed when changing the water pump and bled the system, again. Heat was still poor so I popped the lines off the heater core and flushed it another time with the garden hose and bled the system. 

Now I have heat and it's gone from needing to put the temp all the way to hot to try to warm the jeep, to air that gets uncomfortably warm if you hold hand in front of the vent for too long at that setting.  

If heat fades again I'm going to add a filter on the inlet side of the heater core. I'd really like to avoid replacing the heater core, just because I don't want to pull the whole dash apart to fix it. 

Now some pictures:

OEM on the right:

Ever figure out the source of that oil leak???

In reply to jfryjfry :

I replaced the oil pan gasket when I did the front end work, and that seems to have solved it. 

I did see some wetness under there when I was doing the bushings for the front diff, but everything was tight and I don't get any odor or spots on the ground, so I haven't looked into it any further. It's due for an oil change and I'll monitor it for usage, but it seems to be solved. At least as solved as it's going to get for a 17yo vehicle with 160k on it.